Admissions and Fees

Our students come to us with varying skill sets and life experiences. JSLI welcomes you and views your life experience as a unique opportunity for all of us.

The requirements for joining the JSLI Rabbinical School are different from other rabbinical schools because JSLI takes into account your life experience. However, we must ensure that all of our students meet our requirements too (and this will include a knowledge of Jewish history, Jewish texts, Shabbat, Jewish Festivals, the High Holidays, rituals and life cycles).

When we have our pre-enrollment interview with you (see below for more on this), we will be able to tell you if you need to complete some extra Jewish learning before becoming a Rabbinical or Cantorial School student.

You must be committed to a life of personal spiritual development and service to humanity

As ongoing spiritual work is an integral part of the program of study, completion of JSLI’s curriculum must be understood to be a beginning, not an end, of lifetime study.

You Must be Supportive of Interfaith Marriages

Jews who have married non-Jews make up a large proportion of the Jewish population, yet they are largely ignored by Jewish organizations. JSLI is different: we teach our students to minister to and focus on the needs of the Jewish interfaith (as well as the needs of the Jewish unaffiliated). Therefore it is a core requirement that you are supportive of interfaith marriages.

Your Time Commitment to JSLI as a Rabbinical School Student

We meet weekly as a study group (havurah) via video conference (contact us to find out which day). Each class is approximately 2 ½ hours long.

At the study groups, we ask questions, explore answers and get to know our colleagues while we expand our vision of modern Judaism and the history, scholarship and rituals that created and sustained it. The topics we focus on are taken from our curriculum. We also explore Jewish ritual law (halacha) and how it relates to our modern lives.

Each student must attend the weekly study groups (across both semesters of study). Students are also required to study weekly Torah portions and present Divrey Torah each class session as either scholarly interpretations (drashot) or as sermons.

In addition, students are expected to fulfill other requirements throughout the year.

Your Commitment to Learning Outside of JSLI

We expect you to attend weekly services at Jewish houses of worship, as well as occasional services at non-Jewish houses of worship (as a greater understanding of the modern world’s faiths is intrinsic to your development as a modern spiritual leader). Sim Shalom offers daily online services.

When to Enroll

The Rabbinical School program consists of two semesters – one beginning in September and the other beginning in January. It doesn’t matter which semester you enter in.